With the mayoral election just over two months away, the front-running candidates are upping their game when it comes to the debates. Last night, for example, there were plenty of fireworks at CP24’s event as the discussion ranged from immigration to the redevelopment of Rexdale.

With his leading poll numbers, Rob Ford was the lightning rod of the night. Probably the most heated exchange came when George Smitherman raised the question of how Toronto should treat refugees like the boatload of Tamils that have arrived in British Columbia. “I heard Rob Ford say that Toronto should be a refugee-free zone,” Smitherman said, according to the Star. Ford didn’t back down.

“Right now we can’t even deal with the 2.5 million people in this city,” Ford said. “I think it is more important to take care of people now before we start bringing in more people.”

“How are we going to welcome another million people in? It is going to be chaotic. We can’t even deal with the chaos we have now. I think we have to say enough’s enough,” he said.

Smitherman tiptoed up to the abyss of Godwin’s Law by saying that if Ford had been around in the 1930s, Toronto wouldn’t have let in Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. Of course, the city has no control over immigration policy, and it is unlikely that the province or Ottawa is going to cap immigration, so the issue seems like pure electioneering. Certainly, the other candidates ran with it. Rocco Rossi, the son of Italian immigrants, has even gone so far as to call a rally at city hall today for those “appalled and offended” by Ford’s comments.

When they weren’t arguing about immigration, the candidates moved on to issues that are within the city’s purview. Ford promised to scrap the land transfer tax and vehicle registration fee, and once again, we saw everyone not named Rob Ford support the city’s fair wage policy (which prevents contractors from paying less than the prevailing union wage).

Late in the night, as candidates went into a rapid-fire one-on-one round, Rossi goaded Ford on whether he was really responsible for the development of Woodbine Live in Rexdale, noting that the Sun says Councillor Suzan Hall was more responsible. After Ford basically said Hall was a slacker, the Star quotes her as saying, “I kind of resent the fact that it is being portrayed that I did nothing.”

We’re shocked to learn that Rob Ford is causing resentment among his fellow councillors.

The headline for this article, “Ford oppses immigration” is dishonest, shoddy journalism.

Ford is not against immigration, like his opponents pretend.

But with three quarters of all immigrants going to Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal and most of those coming to Toronto, there needs to be a coordinated policy between federal, municipal and provincial governments about where refugees and immigrants settle. Municipal infrastructure simply can’t handle this influx and how to deal with it needs to be addressed and discussed.

Smitherman, Rossi and Pantalone are going to be exploitative and cynical and frankly COWARDLY in their response to this, but none of that trio actually have any workable ideas about it.

Rob Ford raises a good question that should challenge all of us. In response, Mr Smitherman suggests that had Ford’s statement on immigration been Canadian policy in the 30s Jewish people would have been prevented from coming into Canada during the Holocaust. I would like to remind everyone that Canada under our hen unenlighened prime minister, Makenzie-King, offered up the famous “none is too many” when asked how many Jewish people Canada should accept as refugees from Nazi horrors.

What is wrong with people. Do they not see how there are so many people in our own country as it is that are suffereing. He is fit to be a mayor. A mayor realizes the issue’s that we have to take care of in our own country before letting 1 million people, who we have no idea of their pasts, in. I dont mean to bring racial issue’s into this, but look at how many laws have been changed all because of these immigrants. For goodness sakes in my city we cant even put a big Merry Christmas sign up because it offends an immigrant. If you come to this country you are suppose to respect our laws, but instead they decide they want to change it to how it was in their country, even through they fled from that.
This is suppose to be a free country yet people can be as close-minded as thinking he is wrong and they are right when it comes to letting more people in even though there are people on our city streets with no homes. There are single mothers who can barely feed their child/children. There are drug addicts that need help, children who are sick, and yet we want to put money towards 1 million people from 40,000 miles away. COME ON PEOPLE. you want to talk about wrong and close-minded, your the ones to dont see that your own city is suffering.

I agree with Mr. Ford, we must take care of the people that we have now in Toronto. Who is willing to pay more taxes, wait in lines for services and in traffic. We need to fix the gun, drug, and gang problems in Toronto before we let any more people in.